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Old Man Yells at Cloud

2018-05-08 · letter vlog · John · 3:44 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Everyday life, Personal life) · mode: Personal essay

Borrowing the Simpsons headline 'Old Man Yells at Cloud', John admits that in middle age he yells at clouds (literal ones over his new garden, outrage-driven politics, and above all a social internet that now leaves him anxious and compulsively checking), yet says the urge to pronounce on what is good for others is worth resisting.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The Simpsons headline; 'developmentally appropriate' from pediatricians, wished for adulthood

  • ★ John recalls the famous Simpsons headline 'Old Man Yells at Cloud', noting some viewers were born after the episode first aired in 2002 and may know it only from the internet. — 00:00:00 · Old Man Yells at Cloud
  • ★ John says parents hear 'developmentally appropriate' a lot: pediatricians apply it to tantrums, refusing all but processed carbs, and nightly negotiations over eating two strawberries. (playful) — 00:00:14
  • ★★ John wishes the phrase carried into adulthood, so not understanding Snapchat, enjoying gardening or yearning for an idealized past that never existed could count as developmentally appropriate. (playful) — 00:00:37

00:00:52 — Writing about youth for 13 years; his parents as models of ageing well; Dad and Pretty Hate Machine

  • ★★ John says he may feel this more acutely than most because for 13 years he has made a living writing about how it feels to be young. (hedged) — 00:00:52
  • ★★ John says getting older need not mean yelling at clouds: his parents are wonderful models, having stayed passionate, hopeful and curious throughout their adult lives. — 00:01:02 · Mike Green, Sydney Green, Old Man Yells at Cloud
  • ★★ In ninth grade John played Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine loudly; his dad borrowed the CD despite the warning it was 'super alternative', found it compelling and bought his own copy. — 00:01:09 · Mike Green

00:01:39 — What John yells at: clouds over his garden, outrage politics, and the social internet's urge to check

  • ★★ Despite wonderful mentors in middle age, John still yells at clouds, including literal ones, because they affect the garden he has gotten really into. (playful) — 00:01:39
  • ★★ John says he yells at un-nuanced, outrage-driven political discourse. — 00:01:49
  • ★★★ From age 14 until a few years ago the social internet gave John deep, meaningful relationships he struggled to find IRL; now it mostly makes him anxious and spirally without deepening connection. — 00:01:52
  • ★★ John doesn't think the internet used to be amazing (1994 AOL chat rooms make 2018 Twitter look civil and sophisticated); he thinks he has changed. (hedged) — 00:02:13 · Twitter
  • ★★ Without a sense of obligation John doesn't think he would be on Twitter, Reddit and the rest, and maybe he shouldn't feel obliged to be in virtual spaces that make his life worse. (hedged) — 00:02:21 · Twitter, Reddit
  • ★★ The internet pulls John back: he doesn't want to miss out, wants to share his work, books he loves and causes he cares about, and feels an almost physical urge to check. — 00:02:32 · Twitter, Instagram, Reddit
  • ★★ Like many people with OCD, John lives with a constant urge to check, dread when not checking, and the irrational certainty that this time checking will be important. — 00:02:50
  • ★★★ John feels at times that this now happens across the social order, as if the internet has hacked healthy brains into obsessive checking machines. (hedged) — 00:03:00 · the social order

  • ★★ John corrects himself as an old man yelling at a cloud: the social internet also facilitates conversations across borders and divisions and gives a voice to people who otherwise wouldn't have one. — 00:03:06 · Old Man Yells at Cloud

    “I am an old man yelling at a cloud”

00:03:18 — Grand pronouncements as a symptom of middle age worth fighting; Mary Oliver; the garden; sign-off

  • ★★★ John says the urge to make grand pronouncements about what's good for other people is probably a developmentally appropriate symptom of middle age, but one worth fighting against. (hedged) — 00:03:18
  • ★★ John doesn't know how viewers should live what Mary Oliver called 'your one wild and precious life', or even how to live his own, but he knows he likes his garden. (unsure) — 00:03:26
  • ★★ If John is quiet on Twitter or elsewhere, viewers should know he is probably in his garden and quite content. (hedged) — 00:03:30 · Twitter

Humor (significant)

  • Pediatricians call every toddler habit developmentally appropriate, including nightly food bargaining — 00:00:27

    “a complex nightly negotiation over whether they will eat two strawberries so as to stave off scurvy”

  • John has made a living writing about being young for 13 years — 00:00:57

    “I mean, I'm so old that my career is a teenager.”

  • John's dad borrows the 'super alternative' CD, loves it and buys his own copy — 00:01:35

    “Ah, is there a better way to defang a child's rebellion?”

  • Even with good role models John yells at clouds, starting with literal ones — 00:01:45

    “I yell at literal clouds because they impact the garden that, God help me, I have gotten really, really into.”

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Middle age · Old Man Yells at Cloud

Also: People: Mary Oliver · Mike Green · Sydney Green

Works: Pretty Hate Machine · The Simpsons

Organizations: AOL · Instagram · Reddit · Snapchat · Twitter

Groups: Nine Inch Nails

Concepts: internet addiction disorder · moral outrage · obsessive-compulsive disorder · parenting · rosy retrospection

Also centred on Middle age: A Middle Aged Man · I Was a Teenage Dirtbag · The Terrors of Middle Age

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